Disliked touching includes touching one’s wife for pleasure while in ihrām, during a devotional retreat in the mosque, or while fasting if one cannot trust oneself to maintain self-control.

This also includes touching the body of the deceased—except by the person washing it—for, out of respect for the deceased, the body has become like the private parts of a living person. Hence, it is recommended to conceal it from view and, according to one of the two opinions, to wash it while it remains clothed in a shirt. It also includes touching a man’s thigh, if we hold that it is among the parts of the body that must be covered.

Permissible touching is that which entails neither harm nor religious benefit.

These categories also apply to actions performed with the hands and walking on foot. Examples are readily apparent.

Earning what one can to support oneself and one’s dependants is obligatory. Whether earning money to repay one’s debts is obligatory is disputed; the correct view is that it is obligatory, so that one can discharge those debts. Earning money in order to pay zakat is not obligatory. Whether it is obligatory in order to perform the prescribed Hajj requires consideration. The stronger view in terms of evidence is that it is obligatory, since earning falls within the ability required for Hajj and enables one to perform its rites. The well-known position, however, is that it is not obligatory.

Obligatory actions performed with the hands include helping someone in dire need, throwing the pebbles during Hajj, and performing ablution and dry ablution.

Forbidden actions include killing a person whose life Allah has made inviolable, plundering usurped property, striking someone whom one has no right to strike, and similar acts. They also include games explicitly prohibited by the revealed texts, such as backgammon; games considered even more strictly forbidden by the scholars of Medina, such as chess; games considered equally forbidden by hadith jurists such as Ahmad and others; or games considered less strictly forbidden by some of them.

Other examples include writing works promoting religious innovations contrary to the Sunnah, or copying such works, unless this is accompanied by a rebuttal and refutation; writing falsehoods, injustices, unjust judgments, slander, or amorous verse about non-mahram women; and writing anything harmful to Muslims in their religion or worldly affairs—especially if one earns money from it:

“So woe to them for what their hands have written, and woe to them for what they earn.” 2: 9 79

Likewise, writing